Taking the Long View in a Time of Great Uncertainty: The New NNSA Strategic Vision to Modernize the U.S. Nuclear Stockpile

In previous columns, we have discussed the challenges that the U.S. Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) faces to ensure a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile. 1 These challenges include meeting the requirements identified in the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) of 2018;2 revitalizing the infrastructure associated with the NSE National Laboratories and production sites, much of which is decades old; addressing the “gray tsunami”—the significant departure of the baby boomers who represented the first generation of nuclear stewards—an event expected earlier but now being driven by the inevitable aging of the workforce; and the issues addressed by recent critical reviews of the governance and management of the NSE.3 As all of those challenges are being addressed, the new technologies that are beginning to wrap around the nuclear deterrent—including artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, and hypersonics—bring additional uncertainties to the future of deterrence as we know it. In many ways, these challenges intersect with the toplevel strategic issues identified by Institute membership at the special “Global Nuclear Materials Stewardship Challenges” interactive session held during the closing plenary of the 2018 Annual Meeting.4